


Wrapped Around Your Wrist

by Emmybazy



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - TiMER, M/M, Professor/Student Relationship, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-04-02 02:38:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4042555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmybazy/pseuds/Emmybazy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke's not expecting it when his Timer goes off. He's expecting it to go off that day but not at that time. Not surrounded by his students. </p><p>Calum, however, is expecting his Timer to go off in class. He's a college freshman. Everyone's Timers go off during their first few weeks of freshman year. It's normal. Almost boring. Usual. </p><p>Or; Luke is a college professor. Calum is his student. They're soul mates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Background: Before the Numbers

**Author's Note:**

> It's been awhile since I've posted, but this fic is something I've wanted to do for awhile. I'll try to post chapters every few weeks, but it'll probably be slow going. 
> 
> I want to thank all my lovely editors, as always. Couldn't do any of this without you. Special shout out to Stella who let me talk the original plot for this out with her while I continually put her fic idea on the back burner. Lots of love to her and all the lovely cake people on my dash. 
> 
> This is based off the movie Timer but I have not seen it recently so some of the facts are a little jumbled. Bear (bare?) bare with me. 
> 
> I don't own 5sos or Timer or any other thing in this fic. 
> 
> I apologize for the lonely Luke feels.

Luke tricks his mind into thinking the sun is rising, that the feeling of morning washing over him is not a lie. When he finally opens his eyes, he realizes the sun was a car driving past his window with the lights flicking inside and the energy he feels is anticipation more than rest.

He’s getting his Timer today. In seven hours, his mom is going to drive him down to Court Street where the closest Timer location is and he’ll finally get one. His friends already have them, him being the runt of them all. He’s sat while they’ve calculated the time left until they meet their one. He was even with Cindy when hers went off, displaying the time she would meet her soulmate: five years, eight months, twelve days last time they discussed it in length. It’s a bitter pill, those numbers, because Luke had hoped maybe, just maybe, Cindy’s Timer would go off when he got his.

Luke’s not naive. He’s read up on Timers, he’s talked to his friends, his parents, his older brother who already found his One. Luke watched through the years as his brother got a Timer, found the girl, and is now settled in an apartment with her a ten minute walk away. Luke’s bare wrist is a reminder of how painfully young he is, but he’s not naive.

He doesn’t expect the Timer to immediately flash numbers. He knows some people have to wait months, even years, for their Timers to light up. And he knows it will probably be years after that until he actually meets his One. But none of that matters, because just having a Timer is the first step.

He traces the skin on his right arm, where the Timer will be. He hopes she’s nice. A pretty smile, no, a smirk would be good. If they’re supposed to be perfect together, Luke’s sure she’ll be tactile and cuddly. He wants lots of hugs.

The bright numbers on his clock read 3:27. In six hours and thirty three minutes, Luke’s going to get his Timer. Then he’ll get his One.

******

“Come on, Luke!” Cindy pulls him through the crowds to get to the center of the dance floor. Everyone is wearing varying shades of blue but they’re all pretending that their own shade of blue is the best. Cindy, luckily, had some sort of vision about the color choices and bought a crimson dress. Luke laughs over the bass as her manicured nails grip into his hand.

“You gonna dance with me?” Cindy shouts as everyone jumps around them. Luke never would have guessed that a prom would be this cliche and fun at the same time.

“How do you dance to this?” Luke leans forward to say in her ear. He looks around at all the couples to get some ideas.

It’s clear how much time people have on their Timers based on how they’re dancing. There are the few fortunate couples who have already met their One, their bodies are fit snug together and looking into each other’s eyes, mumbling about their kids or their wedding or something else that makes Luke want to vomit.

There are the kids who don’t have much time left, like Cindy. They came with friends, are in semicircles with other people and bopping, because it would feel odd to be close to another person when your One is waiting for you.

Luke averts his eyes from the next group, the kids who have years to go. Luke feels waves of sympathy every time he sees Timers with twenty plus years on them. Knowing your One is out there, looking for you, looking at the same number that you are, it must be torture. These kids are grinding sloppily, pressing teeth into their partners necks and hiding hands in the folds of their partner’s clothing. Luke thinks he would be like that too, if he knew that his life would be almost over before he met his One. They chase the stimulated emotions of another person’s hands on their body, looking for physical satisfaction from people who can’t fulfill them emotionally.

Luke is in the often forgotten category, the kids who don’t have numbers. Yet. In his class of four hundred students, there are only three of them. Clara stayed home. Over the years, she’d been bullied, crude people writing her notes saying the reason her Timer was blank was her fault, that she wasn’t worthy of a One. Knowing her, she’s at home curled up with an old, Pre Timers book.

Brad is sitting at one of the tables in the back with his date. She grew up in a family who think Timers are unhealthy and will bring about the end of free will. There aren’t many kids without Timers. The government passed a law saying fourteen year olds could get their Timers without a legal adult present. Brad’s been dating this girl a month and is convinced she could be his One. This is the third girl he’s said that about. The last two he went with to get their Timers and neither worked out.

Luke, Clara, and Brad go to a support group together once a month with the kids from other grades who don’t have their Times yet. Every month, new people come to replace the ones who have left. The group is run by one of the school counselors who had to wait until she was twenty to get her Time. She tells them that there are all sorts of reasons why they haven’t gotten their Time yet, and that they are worthy of love even if their One hasn’t gotten their Timer yet. It’s more a reminder than an ease, but Luke gets along well with Brad and Clara. They’ve helped him more than Dr.Bell’s psychobabble has.

Luke used to touch it. He’d sit at night, watching the little lines against the screen as he traced his finger around the edge. He pretended that his One could feel it. He tried not to be angry that she wasn’t looking for him. He sent out positive thoughts and feelings for miles around, hoping that the next day she’d march to the Timer center and get her Timer and then he’d know when they could meet. He hasn’t touched his Timer in years, hardly looks at it unless he thinks he hears it chirp.

“Luke!” Luke snaps his head down to Cindy. Her eyes are wide and worried, knowing exactly what’s going on in his mind, “Come on, it’s prom. Get out of your head for one night.”

“Sorry,” he swallows before grabbing her hand and spinning her around. She lets out a squeal of laughter. He hopes he’ll make his One sound like that soon.

****

“So?”

“So?” Luke doesn’t answer Cindy’s unspoken question. He focuses on not spilling the vodka. His blood alcohol level is a few points below where he’d like it to be at midnight.

Cindy punches his arm gently, “Asshole.”

He finishes making his drink and looks around the room for a corner they can chat in. He catches sight of a patio door and points at it, “Talk outside?” She nods with a grin, pushing through the crowd and sliding open the door.

The noise cuts out immediately as their shoes hit asphalt. It’s a lovely backyard, a pool with a patio set a few feet away. Cindy beelines for the plush chairs around the table, beer held out in front of her and heels clicking against the ground. Luke would offer her his flannel but she’s clutching Charlie’s blazer around her shoulders.

“So,” she plops down into a chair, kicking the chair next to her in Luke’s direction, “What do you think?”

“About what?” Luke takes a seat and rests his hands on his stomach. Cindy rolls her eyes but grins, trying to hide it.

“Charlie.”

“Oh him,” Luke takes a sip, “I could say he was a complete douche and it wouldn’t matter to you.”

“Of course it would matter,” Cindy scoffs, “If you didn’t like him, I’d have to cut all ties with you.” She nudges his shoe, “Come on, tell me you like him. My best friend has to like my soul mate.”

“He’s nice,” Luke offers, Cindy’s eyes still on him, “adores you, obviously.”

Cindy looks away, somewhere over his shoulder. A small little smile takes over her face. Luke had never seen her smile like that before Charlie. He’d seen it the first time on one of their regularly scheduled skype dates a few months back, and now he’s met the person who causes it. Makes sense.

“Okay, but do you like him?” She says, worry coloring her tone. Luke meets her eyes, grins and nods his head. She visibly relaxes and takes a sip of her beer. He watches the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees on the outside of the fence.

“Good idea coming out here. We haven’t talked properly since I’ve been back,” Cindy breaks the stillness and sits up.

“And whose fault is that?” Luke waggles his eyebrows at her. She grins and rolls her eyes.

“Sorry, felt weird leaving him home alone,” she says into the palm of her hand, “But you have my full attention. Tell me things. That professor still hate you? Your roommate ever figure out how to do laundry?”

Luke opens his mouth to tell Cindy that he found one of Ron’s socks in his bed one day, but instead he says, “It’s going to be a boy.”

Her brow crinkles in incomprehension, “What?”

Luke runs a hand through his hair, trying to fix the sloppy quiff, “I uh,” he avoids her gaze because he can’t look at her as he speaks, “My soulmate. He’s going to be a boy,” Luke throws a hand in the air with a self-deprecating smile, “if he ever gets a Timer.”

Cindy’s mouth hangs open but she snaps it up quickly, “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. How-when did you realize?”

Luke buries half of his face in his palm and looks up at her, his skin stretching over his cheekbone, “I don’t know, a month ago? Before that maybe, and I just didn’t want to think about it?”

“I’m sorry, months? You’ve been keeping secrets for months?” She leans forward with a scowl.

“Everyone said it was better to talk face to face. Besides, I wanted to be sure,” Luke says, sitting back into his chair and taking a sip of his cocktail. His fingers twitch on the arm of his chair, “Are you ok with it or-”

“Don’t insult me Luke, of course I’m fine with it,” she rests her ankle on his knee, “So, are you going to tell me your dramatic coming out story?”

“Wasn’t dramatic,” Luke says into the lip of his drink.

“Oh come on, I want details,” Cindy smirks, “the juicier the better.”

Luke chokes on his drink, “Excuse me?”

“A handsome young boy like you exploring his sexuality? There has got to be some good stories there,” her smirk has little power over Luke, the affects lost years ago. But it does make him swallow heavily, “C’mon, spill Hemmings.”

“Not much to tell,” he says pushing her foot off his knee. The red on his cheeks sinks in, a blush he can feel, “I started going to the LGBTQ+ Club meetings out of curiosity more than anything else. After a few meetings, I figured out I was more into dudes. That’s basically it.” Cindy laughs wildly as he tries to hide the red on his face, a sure sign that there is more to the story.

The story he doesn’t tell Cindy is of all the nights he sat in his dorm room, sneakers on, the Facebook invite to the meetings open on his computer as the minutes ticked past the start time. He doesn’t tell Cindy about the days his friend Jenna pestered him to come to the meetings with her and her One, Tracy, to show them support. He doesn’t tell Cindy about how he took a deep breath when he saw all the people who believed soulmates could be same sex, a highly debated topic among opponents of Timers.

Luke learned so much about the misrepresentation of non-heteronormative soulmates in that meeting room. He met same-sex couples, non-binary couples, all of them with their Timers lit up with hearts. He watched as his friend Jenny, a transgender woman, began transitioning with the full support of her One, Craig. Everything about the atmosphere of the club made him feel accepted and loved, something his blank Timer had never made him feel.

Luke would definitely not tell Cindy about the boys with years left on their Timers who bought Luke’s drinks and took him home. Luke smirks, he definitely learned a lot this semester.

“You should get back inside, find Charlie,” Luke turns to Cindy, “Almost midnight.”

She stands up and stretches her back and says, “Want to get lunch this week?”

“Sure.” Cindy holds her hand out to Luke, offering to pull him up. He bats it away, “I’m going to stay here longer.”

“Okay, see you later,” She squeezes his shoulder before turning to the house.

Luke leans back in his chair, head tilted back. He stretches his fingers, joints popping.

His friends’ screams of the countdown press against the patio doors, the energy radiating through the windows. All it is to him is a reminder of another year passed with only lines across his Timer. He grabs his right arm above his Timer, careful not to graze it. As he hears the loud shouts of “Happy New Year!” Luke repeats in his mind on a loop, this year, this year, this year.

*****

Luke startles awake when the door opens. He hears the slam of the wood against wall as someone crashes into the apartment.

“Luke?”

“Living room. You meet her?” Luke rises and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. The clock says it’s 1:30 in the morning on the day after Ashton met his soulmate. Luke had been checking his phone twice as often throughout the day, waiting for the text.

“Of course I met her! The universe doesn’t get it wrong,” Ashton stumbles in and settles next to Luke on the couch, passing him a beer. Luke has to teach a lecture tomorrow morning. Hell, Ashton has to teach two lectures tomorrow morning, but if there were ever a time for a celebratory beer, it would be this.

“Don’t they not want us to call it that? It’s science not fate, some shit like that?” Luke’s still hazy with sleep, having fallen asleep while grading the midterms from his Statistics 210 course.

“I couldn’t care less what they say, I found her,” Ashton takes a swig of his beer and smiles gently down at his hands.

“Well?” Luke says, “I’m literally on the edge of my seat Ash.”

Ashton turns to Luke, “Sorry. So, I was grading at that coffee shop we go to sometimes, trying to act normally, like you’re supposed to, but it got to be closing time-”

“Oh yeah, they close early on Sundays,” Luke muses. He’d forgotten.

“Focus. So, I left and went to get pizza at Dino’s and stayed there a while. Then it was nine at night and I didn’t know what to do so I went for a walk,” Ashton is gesturing madly with his hands, smiling bright as he tells the story, “Luke, I didn’t know what to do. I just walked around for two hours,” Ashton runs a hand through his hair, “I thought maybe it was wrong and I wasn’t ever going to meet her. So I decided to grab a drink-”

Luke chuckles, “Of course.”

“Shut up!” Ashton is smiling and chuckling too, “I walk into this bar I’ve never been in before and sit down. I order a beer and I must have looked down or something because I hear this angelic voice next to me ask ‘you ok?’” Ashton’s energy is running off him like light, brightening the old drabby flat they share, “I turn and both of our Timers go off when we make eye contact. She laughed and said ‘didn’t think you’d make it.’”

Luke prods him, “Did you say something cheesy?”

Ashton sits back, smirking, “I said, ‘I might cut it close, but I promise I’ll always pull through,’” Luke bursts with laughter and Ashton grins on the couch next to him.

“What’s her name?”

“Amy. She’s so beautiful. And she liked my jokes and is super smart. She’s an engineer at the plant in the next town over. Told her I was a boring old psychology professor. She told me it wasn’t boring and then joked it wasn’t real science.”

“Sure it was a joke Ash?”

“You know what, I am too happy right now to care that you’re insulting such a noble career.”

Ashton’s face is serene as he closes his eyes. Luke can see some of the worry lines melt away. As happy as he is for Ashton, it hits Luke that he might never get there.

“I better get to bed, class at 8:30 tomorrow,” Luke stands and bumps Ashton’s shoulder, “I’m really happy for you man.”

Ashton grins up, “Thanks Luke, I’ll see you in the morning. G’night,” Ashton lies back on the sofa, peaceful grin on his lips.

Luke glances back at Ashton as he heads to the bathroom. Ashton deserves to be happy. He’s twenty seven, and his Timer has been counting down since he was fifteen. Twelve years is a long time to wait, a lot longer than most people have to.

Luke lays back in his bed once he’s brushed his teeth and flicked off the light. He grips the bed frame above his head and bites his lip. His fingers are itching to pull down the sleeve of his shirt. He hasn’t worn a short sleeved shirt in so long, has trained himself not to look when he changes. He hasn’t seen it in so long.

Luke gives in as the clock ticks away the night on his bedside table. He pulls the sleeve down over his right wrist, right past where his Timer sits.

He sighs. He knew what it was going to be, the row of dashes glowing lightly back at him.

Luke is twenty five and has had his Timer since his fourteenth birthday. When his birthday rolls around this summer, it will be twelve years of dashes, twelve years of being the only one looking, twelve years of waiting while his soulmate is out there living their life.

Luke touches the plastic, it’s worn and smooth after years of wear. Sometimes he wonders if he should get it removed. He could tell people it was by choice, that he didn’t believe in the idea anymore. They wouldn’t believe him, would know he couldn’t put up with it anymore. The only thing that stops him is the idea of his One going to get their Timer, finally, and being haunted by those same lines.

He turns to try and sleep, wishing that maybe, just maybe, his One will start looking for him. Luke thinks he could wait for as many years as he’d need to, as long as he knew there was someone else counting down and staring at the same numbers.

*****

“So, what is the answer?” Luke turns back to his class. It’s his entry level calc class, two hundred students crammed into a lecture hall and all of them appear to hate math. He can count at least twenty five students who can’t be bothered to hide the fact that they’re sleeping in the back. He makes a mark on the notepad he keeps on his desk, noting the few students whose names he knows who actually look involved.

No one raises his hand so he sighs and turns back to the board, raising an Expo marker to the whiteboard to show the work.

“So first, we have to determine-” Luke is cut off by a chirp.

Everyone in the class pauses before mumbling. Luke hears them asking which direction it came from. Someone, Maddie, he thinks, says, “I think it was Professor.”

Luke’s spine is stock straight and he can’t move his arm, held aloft in the air with the Timer so close with the level of his face. It wasn’t a phantom beep, it was real, strong and heavy in his ear. He rests his head against the board, smudging black marker on his forehead.

“Uh-” Luke’s voice has shrivelled up and he has to cough before he begins to speak again, “Class dismissed. Do whatever the syllabus says to do for next class. Have a good weekend.”

Luke stays with his back to the students, hand held near his face in case his Timer makes another noise. He’s twenty nine for Christ’s sake, he’d given up, had no idea why he still kept the thing on his arm. He can’t believe- he can’t believe this.

On shaky legs, Luke walks the few steps to the desk in the center of the room. He falls heavily into the seat. With his hands practically vibrating, he undoes the button of his right sleeve and rolls it up slowly, revealing his Timer.

Four years, seven months, seventeen days, five hours.

Luke takes in a deep breath and melts into his seat. He brings his hands to his eyes to press the slowly growing emotion back into them. Someone’s looking for him. Someone wants to meet him.

Luke quickly grabs his phone, carefully typing in the website where you can plug in your numbers and it spits out a date. Once he’s seen the numbers, he speed dials Ashton’s number.

“Hey, Luke, let me call you back in-”

“September fifth 2015,” Luke breathes in deep before repeating, “I’m going to meet him on September fifth 2015.”

“Luke,” the word carries so much relief surrounded by fluff and Ashton’s voice, “Luke I am so happy for you.”

“Me too,” Luke says, looking down at the numbers as a tear slides down his cheek, “Me too.” Someone wants him. Finally.

 


	2. Chapter 1: Day 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calum and Luke meet. Luke is awkward, Calum's rolling with the punches, and they both are a little bit freaked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should have said this is going to be an alternating point of view story. This is an alternating point of view story.
> 
> Since this is the first official chapter, I want to thank by name my lovely betas. They've been troopers with all my work and super encouraging, so an everlasting thanks to Stella, Georgie, Fia, and Cat. Also my sister, except she is rude. 
> 
> Hope you like Chapter 1.

**Calum**

The buildings all look the same, beaten down bricks with neat rows of flowers in front. How is Calum supposed to find the right building when they all look so similar and the names are in tiny plaques over the doors? He could have passed by it for all he knows.

“Excuse me?” Calum turns to the girl walking past, “Do you know where the Ansin building is?”

She nods, “It’s the second one on the left, over there.”

“Thanks!” Calum calls over his shoulder as he jogs to the building. That would have made a funny first meet story. They could have told it easily at parties, her saying ‘the dork couldn’t find the right building’ and then how they laughed when their Timers went off. Too bad it wasn’t her.

Calum’s only vaguely aware that he’s meeting his One today. He’s more worried about this being his first day of classes as a college student, but it’s in the back of his mind. He’s been awake for an hour and he has stared into the eyes of pretty much everyone he walked past in the dining hall. It’d be weird, but at least four other students were acting the same way. A ton of people’s Timers go off during the first few weeks of college, normal protocol. It always irked Calum, how normal his first meet would be with his One, two university students meeting on their first day of classes. But then he’d hear his mom’s voice in his head, saying that it’s the most special thing to happen, no matter what.

Calum flies up the stairs from the first floor to the third floor. He has to find his room. 313 has to be down this hall somewhere. He checks his phone, four minutes past ten. Calum is officially late to his first class of the semester, Statistics 105 with a Professor Hemmings. It should be a good class, the teacher had good reviews online and sent out an email to all the students before class saying what they would and would not need. Calum’s a student at the music conservatory so it’s nice to knock his core classes out of the way early.

Finally, Calum stumbles upon the room, a big lecture hall. He opens the door a few inches and sees the teacher sitting on his desk, all the way at the bottom of the room, calling out the roll. They’re already into the Rs so Calum knows he’s been passed. Calum waits there, listening for a good time to enter.

“Wackowski?” the Professor calls.

“Here!” A bright voice, possibly belonging to Calum’s soulmate, replies.

“Good, only missing a few people today. I’ll take roll the first few classes, to try and learn names, but I stop a few weeks in. I know sometimes you need a personal day, and I’m not going to penalize you for that. I get paid whether you show up or not so,” there’s light laughter from the class and Calum can see the vague outline of a smile on the teacher’s blurry face, “But, I will warn you. Through careful data gathering and analysis, I’ve discovered that students who come to every class do far better than the students who don’t. Now,” the teacher stands up and turns to the board, “I’m Professor Hemmings and this is Statistics 105.”

As the Professor writes on the board, Calum sneaks into the room. He looks in the back few rows and there are no chairs empty. The closest open seat is down in the third row. Calum looks up and see the teacher still writing on the board, talking about class expectations and writing what looks like an acronym on the board. Calum rushes down to the seat.

Calum has to walk in front of some people and he looks into their eyes, mumbling excuse me. One girl giggles as he drops his backpack on the floor. He maneuvers his long legs so that he can reach down to pull out his notebook. His back is to the front of the room and if the teacher were to turn, he’d get a great shot of Calum’s ass.

“Good of you to join us. What’s your name?” the Professor says. Shit. Calum sighs, so close to getting away with it. Calum turns to look at his teacher.

The unmistakable sound of two Timers chiming goes off.

His eyes are blue. First they’re full of shock, then confusion, then fear. Calum’s close enough that Calum can see the clear lines of worry forming on his One’s face. His One is wearing dark tight jeans belted over a crisp blue shirt, rolled up at the sleeves. The top few buttons are undone to show the crewcut of a white undershirt. He’s standing in the front of the room, whiteboard marker uncapped in hand.

Calum takes a breath. It’s his professor.

When Calum is able to process anything other than the look of shock on his One’s face, he hears murmuring around him and even a few gasps as people figure out what exactly happened. He’s hoping one of them will explain it to him.

“Uh,” Calum starts. This is not what the pamphlets prepared him for, “Calum.”

Professor Hemmings looks taken aback by the words before he snaps into reality, “Yes! Calum, your name is Calum…” he trails off as he lifts his attendance sheet, “Hood? Calum Hood?”

“Yeah,” Calum says and sits because there isn’t anything else to say.

“Good,” Professor Hemmings says as he lowers the attendance sheet. He looks back at Calum meeting his eyes, “Uh, I’m...Luke. You should call me Luke.” Luke quickly looks around at the other students, “Not you! You call me Professor. But he, Calum should, Calum should call me Luke.” Luke runs a hand through his hair and stares at the ground for a moment. Calum feels nauseous in his seat.  Luke looks suddenly drained, a different man in front of the class. Calum swallows, noting the unfortunate effects he has on his One.

“Right,” Luke breathes, turning back to them, “Statistics! That’s why we’re here today and that’s the only thing we’ll be discussing for the rest of the class!” With that, Luke turns back to the board and starts writing problems with large, looping numbers so the people in the back can see.

Calum can’t focus. It’s partly because Luke is distracting and partly because the idea of Luke is distracting. Luke’s styled hair and long limbs are all Calum can see, never mind the numbers on the board. A voice keeps going off in his head saying it’s your teacher, stop being creepy but if Luke is his One, Calum is allowed to look.

It seems unfair to Luke, Luke gets stuck with some kid for his soulmate when Calum already gets a fully formed man. Luke’s shoulders are wide, sweeping the air out of the way as he moves around the room. Calum’s damn lucky.

Then it hits Calum: his One is his Professor. His Professor. Like, Luke has a degree and teaches people. He probably has a house or an apartment or something that he pays for by himself and goes grocery shopping. Taxes, he probably does his own taxes. Luke must be in his mid twenties, he’s got a lip ring so he can’t be too old, but he’s worlds away from Calum.

Calum spends his first official college class staring at his soulmate. It’s not a bad view. He better get used to it or else he’s going to flunk this class. Wouldn’t that be an interesting story to tell people how they met.

Calum hardly notices when Luke dismisses everyone, is shocked out of his seat by his classmates getting up around him. Calum puts his books in his backpack and slings it over his shoulder. He turns to the front of the room, wondering if he should go and talk to Luke.

Luke is sitting at the desk, watching Calum. He nods his head and gestures at the chair next to the desk. Calum fights his way through the crowd of students pushing to exit. Luke’s eyes track Calum’s progress, flicking in between Calum and the papers on the desk.  

Luke gives him a light smile as Calum sits down, “Hi.”

“Hey,” Calum answers. They seem to silently agree to wait for the rest of the class to leave before they talk. Calum glances between the door and his hands, waiting for Luke to speak.

A stranger’s shock of laughter fills the room and then passes as the last student exits. Calum looks up to see Luke resting his forehead in his palm and grinning.

“Sir?” Calum leans forward in his seat, unsure.

“No, don’t start with that,” Luke says, turning to Calum, “Really, call me Luke. It’d be weird otherwise.”

“Kind of weird anyway,” Calum says. Luke gives his a brief smile and nod, because it is odd.

“I never thought you’d be a student,” Luke says, fidgeting in his chair, “I’m a statistics professor and I couldn’t see that all the variables would make the result most likely a student. Funny, isn’t it?” Luke laughs again, forced, sharp laughter, but there’s a heavy quality in the air. Luke stills, the air settling, “God, they should fire me.” Calum is having a hard time breathing.

“Can they do that?” Calum asks, “Like, it’s not your fault that you got matched with me.”

Luke furrows his eyebrows, like the thought hadn’t occurred to him. “I don’t think it’s ever happened here before, so I don’t know what they’ll do,” Luke says, leaning back in his chair, a person rather than the teacher Calum watched for an hour and a half. Luke looks at the papers on his desk before asking, “Did you know?”

“Sir?”

“Luke.”

“Sorry, Luke, did I know what?”

“That I’d be a man?” Luke says it so softly, like he’s afraid of the answer.

Calum rest his elbows on the desk and leans his head against his fist, “I knew it was a possibility. That’s not what I have a problem with.” Luke flinches when Calum says it, and Calum hears the implication after he’s already spoken, “I mean, you being a guy isn’t the part I’m having trouble with. I just…” he trails off, trying to find the right words, “How will this work?”

Luke shrugs, “I don’t know. All I know is that it’s supposed to,” Luke plays with the strands of hair at the back of his neck. Calum wants to touch them, or grab Luke’s hand or something. He wants to know what Luke feels like, hoping this would feel more real with some contact.

“So, what, you’re eighteen? Nineteen?” Luke asks.

Calum nods, “Eighteen.”

“You weren’t even born yet when I got my Timer,” Luke rubs at his eyes like they pain him.

“Wait, how old are you?” Calum asks, trying to do the math.

“Thirty-five,” Luke answers, hesitant. Calum’s jaw drops.

“Thirty-five?” Thirty-five? How is Calum supposed to keep a thirty-five year old interested? The guy’s lived a full life without him.

“Look,” Luke says, “This obviously won’t be like other couples, where they just-” Luke waves his hands around and ends with a short sigh, “we’re going to have to figure it out.”

“Ok,” Calum nods.

Luke stares at his hands for a moment, “I have office hours. My office is 520 on the fifth floor of this building. I’m pretty much always there if I’m not in class. Stop by when you want. No pressure.” Luke meets Calum’s eyes.

Luke looks tired and defeated. It’s not supposed to be like this. Calum’s seen all the movies, watched his friends. People act shy, or immediately get into it, some even are pissed and angry but it eventually falls away and turns into a great relationship. But no one ever looks exhausted after they meet their One. Your One is supposed to complete your life, not make it harder.  

Calum gets up to go, “Ok, I’ll see you Luke.”

“Bye Calum,” Luke whispers, walking to the board to pick up his markers. Calum hovers a few feet away, not knowing whether he should leave or not. He wants to touch. He needs to know this is happening. He can’t process this until he feels the heat of Luke’s skin, knows this isn’t a joke or a dream.

“Luke?” Luke looks up from where he’s getting his papers together. Calum steps forward and wraps his arms around Luke’s waist, leaning into his body as Luke stays rigid in his arms.

Calum suddenly realizes that Luke might not want Calum, let alone want Calum to touch him, and is about to pull back when Luke melts into Calum’s arms. Calum’s shoulders are broader but Luke’s body is longer and they hold tightly onto each other, Calum’s hands digging into Luke’s back and Luke’s arms wrapped tightly around Calum’s shoulders. They’ll figure it out. They have to. Luke smells like aftershave masking sweat. Calum hangs onto the scent.  

 

**Luke**

 

Luke’s called Ashton three times. If he gets Ashton’s voicemail one more time-

“Luke? What happened?”

“I met him.” Luke lays his head against his desk. He loves his office, picked everything out himself, all the band posters and plants are his own. Everyone quirks an eyebrow when they see the collision of his personal and work life but Luke loves it.

“Yeah, I guessed that, who is it?” Ashton sounds like he’s walking through the crowded halls. Luke probably caught him right after class.

“It’s-” Luke can’t spit the word out. He can’t admit it, can’t say it out loud.

“Who? I can’t hear you Luke?” Ashton pauses, “Wait, it’s not a woman, is it?”

“No!” Luke sits up, “It’s a student!”

Ashton is quiet on the other end of the line. Luke hears a few ‘excuse me’s coming from people near Ashton. Luke drops his head back onto his desk and groans.

“What?” Ashton finally says.

“He’s a student Ash, in my stats class. And he’s a freshman,” Luke practically whines.

“I-” Ashton cuts himself off, “I’m going to grab us food and I will be in your office in ten minutes.” Ashton hangs up before Luke can say another word.

Luke drops the phone on the table top and throws his arms on top of his head. This is a disaster. Luke’s One is eighteen. Eighteen. How is Luke, boring academic, supposed to be an eighteen year old’s soulmate? Calum’s barely lived yet, has so much to experience, and the universe decided to match him with Luke? Luke hardly leaves a ten mile radius of his house.

Luke can’t take Calum’s life away from. He can’t be selfish and ask for all the things he needs. Luke breathes deep. He’s waited years to have his person, his perfect match, but now he can’t do anything about it. He’s not going to force Calum into the perfect monogamous relationship he’d imagined, with the picket fence in his garden. The fact that Calum’s his student won’t make things any easier. Luke’s going to have to make an effort just to keep this guy’s life somewhat normal, let alone figure out this soulmate thing.

But, through all the thoughts colliding in his head, the overall feeling spread throughout Luke’s body is relief. Hope even. He allows himself a small smile.

All those years of thinking no one wanted him, his soulmate was growing up. Calum didn’t purposefully reject Timers, he couldn’t get one. And he got one as soon as he could, based on Luke’s math. Calum wanted to meet him. Calum held him, fingers gripping into Luke’s back before letting go.

And god, was he beautiful. Calum walked out of Luke’s dreams and into his classroom. His solid build, strong arms stretching out from wide shoulders. His lips, large and round, underneath bright eyes. Even the tattoos and highlighted hair, all of it so gorgeous. Luke wanted to cancel class as soon as he saw Calum. Luke’s never thought of himself as particularly unattractive, but mixed in with the other guilts is the feeling of holding Calum back from someone who is equally beautiful. Instead, Calum got matched with someone past their prime.

Luke is weak. He sits up and wakes his computer. He opens up a web browser and goes to Facebook. Calum has no privacy settings so Luke doesn’t feel as weird as he could sifting through the profile. He finds Calum’s birthday and hometown easily, then moves to the pictures sections. It’s full of pictures of Calum at parties, arms around all different young people. There are selfies, some of them in various degrees of undress that make Luke pause and swallow heavily. Calum’s fit.

“So that’s him?” Luke shoots back in his chair to see Ashton in front of his desk.

“What the fuck Ash?” Luke catches his breath.

“I‘ve been standing here for at least thirty seconds, mate. And you’ve been looking at that picture for far too long,” Ashton points at the screen to a picture someone took of Calum on a beach, laid out and smiling in the sun.

“Food?” Luke asks because he doesn’t have a response. Ashton passes him a to-go box full of dining hall food and sits down, “Thanks.”

“How old are you? Stalking his facebook?” Ashton says, not wanting to drop the subject. He’s got a smirk on his face.

“Is this you helping me through my crisis?” Luke says, digging into his food.

“Oh please,” Ashton shakes his head, “You’re practically drooling, that’s not a crisis.”

“Yes it is! I’m twice his age,” Luke says, finally minimizing the window on his computer.

“He’s eighteen, he’s a legal adult. You’re fine Luke,” Ashton says.

“But-” Luke sputters, “I’m his teacher!”

Ashton puts his container on the desk and leans forward in his seat, “What’s really bothering you?”

Luke stares at the minimized window on the computer. He reaches forward and opens it again. Calum’s relaxed face takes over the screen. Luke goes back to the homepage and hits ‘request friend’ before he exits out of Facebook all together.

“Luke.” Luke looks at Ashton. Ashton has looked at Luke like this before, his face open and edged in worry. There were too many nights when Luke’s Timer was blank that Ashton had to force him to talk about the thoughts in his head.

“I don’t know,” Luke confesses, “I don’t know. I just-” Luke puts hand in his hair and smooths it back, “I had planned out what I was going to say. Ask why it took him so long and what finally made him decide to get a Timer. And he would have had some self discovery about how much he wanted to meet me and it would have been easy because we would’ve waited so long for each other-” Luke stops. It’s stupid now. It all sounds so stupid because of course that wasn’t going to happen, his One is Calum. Was always Calum.

“Hey, but it’s better this way, isn’t it?” Ashton says, “He always wanted you-”

“I feel like I’m stealing something from him,” Luke says, eyes on his desk, “I’ve seen how the college meets work out and how happy and easy it is and I’m taking that from him.” Luke swallows, “That’s all I could think about in class, I’m taking so much away from him.”

Ashton is quiet so Luke looks up. Ashton shakes his head, “It’s not like that.”

“Yes it is-”

“Luke, you’re missing it, you’re missing the whole point of everything,” Ashton says, raising his voice, “You’re not some burden placed on him and he’s not forced into being with you. It’s a gift, a huge fucking gift that the universe gives you. You two are meant to be together. Why aren’t you getting that?” Ashton’s face is set hard, almost shocked.

Luke lets that settle. Ashton is right. It’s not the universe, it’s science, but still. He’s supposed to lift Calum up, not bring him down. This is good. He’s spent the last twenty years waiting for Calum. This is a good thing.

“You’re right,” Luke nods as he speaks, “You’re right. I’m not thinking straight.”

“Nope, definitely not,” Ashton says with a hint of a smirk. Luke rolls his eyes but smiles, “Are you good? I have class across campus soon but I can cancel-”

“I’m fine, you can’t cancel first day,” Luke smiles, “They’ll think you’re easy or something.”

“Wouldn’t want to get anyone's hopes up,” Ashton stands and grabs his container, managing a few more bites before he tosses it in Luke’s fridge, “I’ll see you at the thing later right?”

“Yeah, good luck convincing people you know psychology,” Luke says as Ashton grabs his satchel. Ashton flips him off as he exits Luke’s office. Luke grins before turning back to his computer. He has an hour before his next class, should probably be going over today’s lesson plan, but he logs back into Facebook.

He has eight friend requests from students. He sighs, deleting each request. He’s going to have to find a balance between Calum’s soulmate and Calum’s friend’s teacher, can already foresee the awkward situations. Along with the requests is the notification that Calum accepted his friend request and a message.

Hey is the first part with another bubble beneath, so my friends are trying to stalk your facebook,  followed last by, sorry if they friend you, they wanted to know if you’re hot :)

What did you tell them? Luke says. As soon as the bubble pops up, he straightens and wants to take it back. He can’t flirt with a student.

A little bubble with the dots appears. Luke waits as Calum types, not knowing if he should intercede and apologize first or wait it out, and Calum responds with only ;)

Luke lets a breath out and laughs. He reminds himself that this is a gift, Calum is a gift. Calum wanted to find him. It will work out.

 

*******

 

Luke walks into the large banquet hall in the main building on campus. The college is holding a casual meeting for the teachers with an open bar in the back and a table of fancy snack foods. The school has about three hundred teachers on staff but there are only about a hundred here with their significant others, normal for the event. Every semester, Timers go off at the small gathering when new teachers meet for the first time. Luke had thought he would be a part of that group.

“Luke!” Erika waves him over. She’s a Sociology teacher, has co-taught a class with Ashton called ‘Psychology and Sociology, What is What?’ before. Her teaching methods are a little on the side of eccentric to Luke and she’s one of a few teachers who doesn’t have a Timer. She’d even made a joke when they were first getting to know each other that she could be his One. Luke thanks God that she wasn’t.

“Hello, Erika,” Luke says, nodding at Ashton, Amy, and Erika’s new beau, all huddled together with drinks.

“You will never guess who showed up in my class today,” she says with a smirk.

“I can actually, very easily guess, that it was Calum,” Luke says, hoping immediately that he’s wrong.

“Oh! Did he say something about me?” Erika asks with a hand around his bicep.

“No, haven’t talked to him since this morning,” Luke answers. His and Calum’s short Facebook conversation ended when Calum had to run to class, saying he was going to be late again.

“Excuse us Erika, I’m going to steal Luke here,” Amy steps up and puts a hand on Luke’s shoulder. She looks at him, “Let’s get you a drink.”

“See you later,” Luke nods at Erika and follows Amy to the bar.

“You feeling better? Ashton says you weren’t handling it well,” Amy says when they are a safe distance away.

“Hello Amy, it’s nice to see you too,” Luke says as they get to the bar. He turns to the bartender, “A beer, thanks.” He turns in time to see the last of Amy’s huff pass, “I’m fine now. He seems nice. And he’s cute, so we should be fine.”

“Alright, well, we’re here to talk if you need us,” Amy says, “But your boss is currently walking towards us with purpose so I’m going to go.” With that she makes a swift exit through the crowd while Luke turns to face the music.

“Hi John,” Luke says as John Feldmann, renown mathematician and chair of the maths department, approaches.

“Luke,” John says, a smile on his face, “don’t look so miserable.”

“I won’t once you say the words ‘we’re not firing you.’”

“We’re not firing you,” John speaks and Luke takes a breath, “No one can fight Timers anymore, courts banned it.”

“Do I have to do anything though? Or will he have to switch classes?” Luke asks.

John shrugs, “There’s no policy here for it. Just don’t give him special treatment, but I doubt you’d want your soulmate to switch out of your class.”

“Really?” Luke is shocked, “So it’s just fine that I got matched with my student?”

“Yes,” John takes Luke’s elbow and steers him so no one will be able to overhear him, “Are you okay? You don’t seem happy.”

“I just wasn’t expecting any of this,” Luke says as he runs a hand through his hair.

“Hey, Luke,” John puts a hand on his back, “I get this is tricky, and there are a lot of moving parts, but don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“Thanks John. I think I’m going to head home. I can’t get the feeling that everyone’s watching me to go away.”

John sighs, “Hate to tell you this, but it’s because everyone is watching you.”

Luke nods once, a grimace on his face. The exit is through a sea of people who he thought were friendly but give him odd looks as he passes.

 

*****

 

Luke takes the long way to his office, looping around the outer buildings rather than walking straight through campus from where he parks. Fall is settling in and pretty soon he’ll have to wear a jacket. For now, a light button down suits him fine.

He’s late today. Normally Luke likes to be in around eight, most of the teachers get in around then. It gives him time to grade before department meetings and then his afternoon class. He’s pushing his schedule with three classes this semester, and he really needs to look into hiring another TA. Jesse had a partner last semester, and Luke only had two classes then. He can’t bury her with his work.

He crushes a few leaves under his shoes as he walks down the sidewalks. He’s hardly talked to anyone since yesterday, just Ashton and a few people who grabbed him before he left the faculty gathering last night. He’s not particularly interested in talking. What’s he supposed to say?

He climbs the front steps to the building and heads to the elevator. Doors are shut up and down the hall and he doesn’t have to wait for the elevator to arrive, the doors pinging as soon as he presses the button. He hits the 5 and leans against the wall of the elevator. He wonders if Chris from his upper level stats class last semester is looking for a job. Luke could trust him with TA work, he was a good student. He’ll email him later, try to get someone to help out.

Luke steps out of the elevator and starts walking through the maze of halls to his office. This floor is for the math teachers, this one and half of the one below. Luke turns the last corner before his office and stops.

Calum is sitting on the tile in front of his office, head tipped back against the door frame and eyes closed. He looks peaceful, elbows resting on his knees. It can’t be comfortable, the hard of the door against his back. Luke takes the few careful steps towards him.

Calum’s eyes pop open when Luke is near him. Calum rubs a hand over his face and shakes his shoulders awake, “Now who’s late?,” Calum says with a smirk, “I was going to leave if you weren’t here in five minutes.”

“Yeah? How long have you been telling yourself that?” Luke grins and reaches down, offering a hand. Calum eyes his fingers before slipping his hand into Luke’s. Luke hauls him up. They end up a breath apart and neither move away.

“Good morning,” Calum says, smirk spreading to the other corners of his face.

“Morning,” Luke takes a step around Calum to hide the slight flush on his cheeks. He pulls his keys out of his pocket  and unlocks the door. Calum grabs his backpack and follows after Luke.

“What can I do for you?” Luke drops his briefcase on his desk and sits on the edge, arms crossed in front of his chest. Calum’s scuffed shoes and bare arms show his age.

“You said I could stop by,” Calum hovers near the doorway.

Luke nods his head and gestures to the chair in front of the desk, to the right of his knees. Calum hesitates before throwing himself into the chair.

Luke doesn’t know what to say. Calum isn’t speaking. Luke wonders if he should initiate something, have some sort of profitable discussion that will clear both of their souls. Calum fixes his hair and palms his phone in his pocket, something Luke sees nervous students do on a daily basis, when asking him about a test grade or if he can help them. Luke pretends this is a similar situation.

“Did you try the homework yet?” Luke huffs out, almost immediately regretting how stupid it sounds.

Calum grins, “No, I figured you’d go easy on me.”

“Nope,” Luke shakes his head, “I have integrity.”

“Honestly, I don’t think I’ll understand it,” Calum leans forward, flirtatious tilt to his head, “I wasn’t paying attention to a thing you were saying.”

Luke laughs, “If we’re being honest, then I have no idea whether I even taught the right lesson. I was on autopilot yesterday.”

Calum grins up at Luke. Luke feels a chill spread through his body. The curve of Calum’s chin means everything to him. He has to shake himself to stop from reaching out.

Luke clears his throat, “I can help you with it now, if you want? You can get it out of the way and I’ll know at least one person in class isn’t completely behind.”

“Sure,” Calum sits up and grabs a notebook out of his bag, “But I don’t have the textbook yet.”

Luke stands up and goes to his bookshelf, pulling his extra copy. He hands it to Calum, “Here, I’ll save you fifty bucks.”

“Thanks,” Calum accepts it and briefly Luke thinks that this is the first gift he’s given his soulmate. Calum opens the book carefully on Luke’s desk, like he realizes it’s the first gift he’s receiving. Luke swallows down the feeling in his chest while Calum scooches his chair closer, “I also didn’t write down the homework, so there’s that.”

Luke can’t help but grin. He sits in his chair and pulls out his lesson plan from the day before, “Page fifty three, one through forty five, odd numbers.”

Calum looks up at him, “Seriously? The first day you gave us that much homework?”

“If you do the math,” Luke grins and Calum raises an eyebrow at the expression, “It’s only twenty questions.”

“They’re so long,” Calum points out the longer questions that have multiple parts. He pouts and Luke laughs out loud.

“Better get started then,” Luke says. Calum rolls his eyes and smile, turning to the first one. Luke knows that the first few are simple. As long as Calum passed his high school math class, he’ll be fine.

It hits Luke that this is his soulmate sitting in front of him. Calum came to spend time with Luke and, somehow, maybe because they’re both nervous or Calum is an agreeable person, Calum is doing homework. Luke’s an idiot. He should be asking Calum questions, getting to know him, seeing if he’s still freaked out or if Luke is the only one.

Calum looks peaceful as he does the problems. His head is in his palm as he bounces the pencil against the textbook. His notebook page has the first few answers written out in soft pencil strokes, small numbers with sharp edges. Maybe this is better, establishing a peace between them, a baseline, before the jump into whatever they’re jumping into.

Luke gets himself ready for the day, starting up his computer and taking all of his work out of his satchel. Luke is scrolling through his emails when Calum speaks, “You’re not ashamed of me, are you?”

Luke whips his head up to squawk, “What?” Calum looks more curious than serious so Luke thinks it might be a joke. Calum purses his lips and taps his pencil against his palm.

“I looked some stuff up last night,” Luke lets the mouse go and turns his full attention as Calum speaks, “about people like us. Most of the people worked out ok but,” Calum swallows and coughs before continuing, “there were a few couples where the older person was so ashamed of the younger person that it ended really badly.”

“Really badly?” Luke asks for clarification.

“Yeah, severe depression and stuff,” Calum whispers, “One girl even-”

“I’m not ashamed of you,” Luke cuts Calum off, not wanting to know the results of something that won’t happen to them. Luke’s never going to not want Calum, he’s waited to long to push him away.

Calum nods, gelled hair staying put as he does, “Good.”

Luke, heart in his throat, reaches forward to bump Calum’s hand with his curled fingers, “Yeah, good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DONT HATE ME. NEXT UPDATE IS NOT GOING TO BE FOR AWHILE BECAUSE I WORK A LOT AND HAVE NO TIME TO SIT DOWN AND WRITE EVEN THOUGH I REALLY WANT TO. 
> 
> Ok. Thanks for reading :) Hopefully I'll develop some sort of posting schedule as the chapters go on, but right now we're looking at about 12 chapters around this length.
> 
> tumblr: emmybazy.tumblr.com
> 
> (Also, if people can think up appropriate tags for anything I've missed, let me know. Like, for the age difference thing, I want to tag stuff like that appropriately so people who don't like that will know not to read it. )


	3. Chapter 2: First Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke has waited so long for his One. He's hoped and wished and now...Calum. But Calum is not what he expected and Luke is not what Calum expected. Yet, somehow, they've got to make this work. 
> 
> Or, the few weeks after Calum and Luke find each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Finally!
> 
> So I realized the reason why I wasn't getting this done was because I was writing the wrong story. I thought this was the story of two people from different walks of life finding each other but it's not. It's about Luke, and it's about being told all your life you're going to have one story and then finding out you have to make your own. So, instead of forcing myself to write Calum's perspective, I'm going to switch completely to Luke's and hopefully I can post again before 2017!
> 
> I'm doing the 1d Big Bang for anyone who likes One Direction! I'm posting on Feb. 29 so look out for that!
> 
> Thanks for waiting so long for this, hopefully it was worth the wait. As I said, updates should be more timely. I'm thinking two more chapters, hopefully soonish.

**Week 2, Day 2**

Calum scans the dining hall for Mikey. He’s got a tray of food and a ton of homework to do for Luke’s class tomorrow, but he’s not worried. He’s going to Luke’s office hours later. 

“Calum!” Calum turns to the voice and sees Mikey sat, waiting at one of the tables in the corner. Mikey and Calum have been acquaintances for years, the type of friends who have each other’s number but hardly use them. When they decided separately to go to the same school, they chose to share a room. So far, it’s worked out well. Mikey’s been a person to talk to in all the gossip that surrounds Calum lately. 

“Hey,” Calum sits. 

“Dude, did you do the reading for Erika’s class yet?” Mikey asks. He’d switched out of an 8 am into Calum’s sociology class before they’d even moved into their dorm room. 

“Enough."

“How long is it?

Calum shrugs, “Half a novel.”

“What is it about?” 

“It’s a pre-timer novel,” Calum says, digging into his huge plate of pasta, “this girls upset because she doesn’t know which guy to go with or something.”

Mikey shakes his head, “It’s only the second week of school, do you think she’ll-” Mikey trails off and looks over Calum’s shoulder with a grin, “Your One just walked in.”

Calum perks up at that. He turns and sure enough, Luke is walking with another professor over to a table on the other side of the dining hall. 

“Luke!” Calum calls. Luke looks up at the voice, looking around the room, eyes pausing when they get to Calum. A soft, hopeful smile takes over his face. Calum raises a hand briefly. Luke says something to the professor he’s with, setting his tray down on a table and walking towards Calum. 

Calum turns to Mikey, “Don’t embarrass me.”

Mikey snorts, “Dude, it’s your One. Like I could.”

“Calum,” Luke approaches the table, hands in the pockets of his dress pants. Calum sits up straighter. Every time Calum has seen Luke, he’s dressed in sharp lines and rich fabrics. Calum didn’t realize he had a thing for business casual until Luke came to class last week wearing a dark grey suit. That was the Luke Calum had in his head all weekend as they texted little thoughts to each other. 

“Hey,” Calum nods. He leans forward on his elbows and pretends to be settled in his skin. 

“Didn’t see you this morning,” Luke points out.

Calum chuckles, “No, I slept in. I was going to come by later.”

“Ok,” Luke nods, “I’ll be in my office between 4 and 6.”

“I know,” Calum grins and Luke grins back. Mikey coughs across from him, “Oh, this is Mikey.”

Luke looks at Mikey, offers his hand, “Hello, I’m Luke.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mikey shakes Luke’s hand, not bothering to wipe the fried food grease off his hand first.

Luke stands there after pulling his hand back, rocking once on his heels, “Well,” he looks uncomfortable, bashful. Calum is an awful person for finding it endearing. “I’ll see you later.” 

“Bye,” Calum nods at Luke as he walks away.

Calum watches Luke walk away. When he turns back to the table, Mikey is mid eye-roll, “What?”

“You guys are one of those couples,” Mikey jokes, “the ones who act all shy at the beginning.”

“He’s my Professor, how am I supposed to act?” Calum questions as he stuffs a few french fries into his mouth. 

“Like you’re meant for each other?” Mikey laughs, a cruel edge to it, “You’re literally soulmates. Act like it.”

Mikey is going to meet his one when he’s 28. It’s a sore topic with him. He acts like he doesn’t want a One, like he’s content to skip from bed to bed at night. Calum’s learned from the past few weeks of sharing a space that Mikey’s more affected by his timer than he lets on. 

“Mikey,” Calum meets his eyes, “I only got my Timer four years ago.” He hopes Mikey hears the subtext, _Luke_ _  didn’t have a time until four years ago. _

“Oh,” Mikey says. Calum hasn’t shared the actual numbers with anyone else. No one needs to know but him and Luke, “shit.”

“Yeah,” Calum nods.

Mikey glances toward Luke again, his finger reflexively going for his own Timer, “That sucks.”

Calum looks down at his tray, grabs his drink to wash the dry taste out of his mouth, “I know.”

 

******

 

“No way,” Luke throws the hacky sack back to Calum, “Step Brothers.”

“Are you kidding me?” Calum keeps the hacky sack in play, “Have you seen Anchorman?”

“Yes, I have. That’s how I know Step Brothers is better.”

“I love lamp?” Calum leans forward in his chair, picking the hackie sack out of the air, “Sixty percent of the time it works every time?” 

Luke smiles, “But it’s the fucking Catalina wine mixer!”

Calum’s about to fire a line about Baxter back when there’s a tap on the partially opened door, “Professor Hemmings?”

“Yes?” Luke leans to see who it is, “Oh, hey Jesse. Come on in.”

“Hi,” the girl steps forward, “I’m Jesse, the TA.”

“Not the only one. I will find you a buddy soon,” Luke steps to one of his filing cabinets and grabs a third of the stack on top. Calum’s pretty sure it’s the homework Luke collected yesterday. 

“Thanks,” Luke hands her the papers, “Do you want me to take more, Professor?”

“Nope,” Luke shakes his head, “that’s good enough.”

“Seriously, I can do half.”

“No,” Luke sits back down, fixing her with hard stare, “I’m not taking advantage of you this early in the semester,” Luke grabs a sheet off his desk, “Here’s the answers. Same point system as last year.” 

“At least give me some of the 306’s work,” Jesse says, stuffing the papers into her backpack, “I really don’t mind.”

“Jesse,” Luke raises his eyebrows at her, “tell your friends to apply. That’s the only extra thing I’m asking you to do.”

She rolls her eyes, “Fine, bye Professor. I’ll drop them off as soon as I get them done.”

“Bye Jesse,” Luke waves her off. 

Calum waits until the sounds of her shoes disappears and then he asks, “What was that about?” 

Luke runs his hands through his hair, a repetitive action Calum’s started to notice, “I have to find another TA. My second one from last year graduated,” he shrugs, “A few people have applied but they don’t have the knowledge base I’d prefer. Until someone who I like applies, it’s just me and Jesse grading.”

“You grade all of those papers?” The stack is nearly five inches high now, all single pages of paper stacked up.

“That’s why I only collect once a week,” Luke grins, “I actually should start them.”

“I can help,” Calum offers. 

“No, I’ve got it. You do your homework.”

Luke stands and grabs the stack and a few red pens from a bin on his shelf. Calum frowns, “I want to help you.”

Luke raises his head to look at Calum. He opens his mouth to speak but the words pause on his tongue. Calum’s shoulders stay firm and lifted, daring Luke to challenge him. Luke doesn’t. He bobs his head once, “Alright.”

Calum’s posture loosens and Luke writes out an answer key for the questions. Calum tosses the hacky sack in the air, waiting. 

Calum can’t describe what’s happening between them. They click. It’s true what they say about Ones, there’s a reason they exist. In the past week, Calum has fallen into a comfort and ease with Luke he didn’t expect. He throws the hacky sack so it just brushes the ceiling and plops down into his hand. Luke says it’s old, from his college years. The age difference doesn’t feel so large when there’s no one in the room to point it out.

“Here,” Luke hands them a third of the pile from the shelf and a red pen, “Answer key is on top. They get a point for the work, a point for the right answer. Just put that number on the top and I’ll figure out grades tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Calum clears a spot on Luke’s desk for him to work at.

“When we’re done, I can help you, ok?” Luke looks like he’s asking for himself, not Calum. Calum obliges, nodding and turning to the first sheet. 

It’s hard. The numbers all bleed together. All the different work runs and he can’t remember if he got the right answers on his own work. 

Calum keeps catching Luke out of the corner of his eye. For every sheet that Calum gets done, Luke does three. Luke’s smart. Luke’s brilliant. This jumble of numbers makes sense to Luke. He can glance and make sense of it. Calum wonders the extent of Luke’s intelligence. Does he think Calum’s not smart because he’s in the arts instead of science or history?

Luke starts taking from Calum’s pile when he finishes his off. It’s past six now. Calum will have to do his homework in his dorm, without Luke’s help. At least Luke won’t grade that homework, so he won’t see how lost Calum is. 

There’s only a few sheets left when Luke stops Calum’s hand from grabbing from the pile, “I can do the rest. Thank you.”

“Ok,” Calum sits back. He adds a hasty, “You’re welcome.”

“Get out your textbook, these will only take me a second.”

“I’ll wait until later to start. No point this late,” Calum gestures at Luke’s computer monitor, time in white numbers against the blue. 

Luke keeps his head down, “I can stay for awhile. If you don’t have any place to be, I’ll help.” Luke looks up at the last word, jaw clenching.

“Thanks,” Calum pulls his textbook out and hears Luke shift.

“I like spending time with you,” Luke blurts out, face breaking out of it’s mask. Calum cocks his head and Luke continues, “I mean, I wouldn’t stay because I feel obligated. I just-” he breathes, laughs, “god.” He drops his head against one palm and goes back to his work. 

“Me too,” Calum offers. Luke tips his head towards Calum and Calum grins, “You’re fun for an old guy.”

It was the right thing to say. Luke’s face brightens up. He bites back a smile as the red pen dances across the page. Calum opens his book. Luke makes an amused noise. 

“This one belongs to a Calum Hood,” Luke grins at Calum holding up the sheet of paper.

“I bet he got every question right,” Calum jokes, writing his name on a new sheet of paper. 

“We’ll see about that,” Luke turns to the sheet, eyes flicking along the blue lines. Calum tries to read the first question in his textbook but is too distracted by the pleased smirk on Luke’s lips. Something about the hoop in Luke’s lip makes it hard to look away. 

Luke makes a few corrections, writes the score at the top and hands it back to Calum. It says 10/10 with a smile face. Calum folds it carefully and tucks it into his backpack. Luke slides over. 

It only takes forty minutes of Luke walking Calum through problems and looking over his shoulder as he writes. When Calum gets question right on his own, Luke pats Calum’s knee next to his and beams, proud.

“That’s it then,” Luke says as Calum writes the last, correct, answer on the page.

“I’ll get going,” Calum pulls his books together.

“I’ll walk out with you,” Luke throws some papers into his briefcase and turns off his computer, “What dorm do you live in?”

“Walker?” Calum waits by the door. Luke doesn’t pick up much. He throws the hacky sack on the bookshelf and doesn’t straighten out the papers on his desk. 

“That’s on the way to my parking lot,” Luke gestures for Calum to walk through the door first. Luke shuts off the light, locks the door, and heads for the elevators, “So.”

“Yeah?” Calum asks, one hand in his pocket and the other wrapped around his backpack strap.  

“How’s school so far?” Luke asks, more hesitant in his questions outside of his office. 

“Weird,” Calum shrugs, “Most people ask about you.”

Luke’s small smile falls. He sighs and wipes a hand down his face, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok,” Calum realizes the mistake he’s made, “I’m a campus celebrity so that’s kind of cool.” Luke fakes a smile so Calum continues, “It’s probably harder on you.”

Luke shakes his head, “I’m an adult. I can handle it. You shouldn’t have to be dealing with this stuff.”

Calum, stepping off of the elevator, raises an eyebrow at Luke, “What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m a child.”

“No,” Luke hurries to follow Calum, puts a hand on his arm, “No, I mean that your first week of college shouldn’t have been like this. Everyone is watching you. It’s your first week of college, it’s supposed to be fun.”

Calum laughs, light, “I met my One. What’s more fun than that?” 

Luke’s eyes widen at that. His palm comes up and rests on his stomach, “Yeah. I guess.”

Calum bumps into his shoulder, an easy contact to show Luke he’s there. They’re outside now. It’s still early by the sun’s standards. There aren’t many people wandering around this side of campus, most people back near the dorms. They start down the southbound path, Luke’s hand tucked into his pockets. 

“What did you think I was going to be like?” Calum asks after he sees a group of girls up ahead, pointing. 

“Hmm?”

“You had a lot of time to think about it. What did you think?” Calum teases. 

Luke bites his lip around a smile, “It seems silly now that I’ve met you. I figured there was a reason you hadn’t gotten a Timer.” Luke runs a hand through his hair, “My school had counseling for timeless kids, and they always taught us that there was a perfectly logical reason why our One didn’t have a Timer. Anti-Timer fanatics, injury on their left wrist that prevented implant, fear,” Luke shrugs, “No one ever told me there was a possibility you weren’t born yet.”

“So what did you think?” Calum persists. 

Luke shakes his head bright smile on his face. “I thought you were homophobic,” Luke admits reluctantly as Calum chuckles, “It made the most sense. You were afraid to get your Timer because you knew it would be a man and couldn't handle it. But then, of course, you had an epiphany, realized that you were ready to be with me, and got a Timer.” Luke nods and looks at Calum.

Calum hits a pebble with his shoe, “It’s sad. That probably would have been a lot easier for you.”

Luke laughs, “Probably, but it’s kind of nice, right? That it hasn’t been easy? It’ll make it better down the road.”

“Great first meet story,” Calum agrees, “And it’s everyone else who’s making it hard. We’ve been...”

“Yeah,” Luke smiles, agreeing with the words unspoken, “Your turn. What’d you think about me?”

Calum tries to remember. He doesn’t have anything like Luke, a narrative. He didn’t think about it much at all, “Nothing really. Once I figured out what my day was, I figured it’d be another student. Didn’t think about much else.”

“Oh come on,” Luke goads, tapping Calum with his briefcase as they slow their walk on the brick pathways, “Nothing?”

“I didn’t even know if you were a guy or a girl,” Calum dodges a guy on his skateboard, a sign they’re nearing his dorm building.

Luke nods, “Fair. You didn’t have twenty years to think about it.”

Calum turns his body more towards Luke, stopping on the path. Calum had done the math. He knew it was twenty years. The way Luke says it, like it slides off his back, betrays how long it really took for them to get here. Calum can see him, grading papers in his office with no time on his Timer, wondering when the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life would decide to look for him. God, Calum was probably failing middle school algebra back then. 

Luke startles when he realizes Calum isn’t following, stopping mid stride and looking at Calum’s face. Luke’s eyes panic for a moment before his features morph into something softer.

“Hey, whatever you’re thinking about, stop. I didn’t mean to ruin it.”

“Twenty years? It hadn’t-” Calum’s heart beats, “It just hit me.”

“Calum,” Luke steps close to Calum, giving Calum the chance to register their body differences. Luke’s slimmer, almost lanky in his tight muscle, but tall compared to Calum, “I’m fine. I’m happy to know you, ok?” Luke looks so hopeful, afraid Calum might push him away.  Calum can’t move the grimace off his face, not until Luke lifts a finger to run down Calum’s hand. It’s skin against skin. Luke takes a slow path, exploring Calum’s fingers with the one small point of contact. There’s an intimacy in the gesture that feels wrong out in public. 

“I was so happy to meet you,” Luke breathes in the space between them, his bright eyes staring down at Calum. 

Calum nods, chokes out a single syllable “Ok.”

The word startles Luke out of Calum’s personal space, a zone Calum doesn’t really want Luke to leave. Luke clears his throat and keeps moving down the path, “Walker, right?”

“Yeah,” Calum catches up, grip tightening on his backpack while his other hand tries to remember the feel of Luke’s skin.  

“Well, here we are then,” Luke pauses at the crossroads, Calum’s building down another hundred feet, “My car’s this way,” Luke points down a different path.

“That’s close,” Calum says, feeling like there’s something else that needs to be said. He’s always been more talented writing the important things in a song. Something about an underlying melody gives the words more strength. So here he is, watching his soulmate look awkward and uncomfortable while walking away from him with a small wave and a rushed step.

“See you in class tomorrow,” Luke calls out. 

“Yeah, see you,” Calum says to his retreating back. Luke’s hands grip and release the air twice as he walks away. Calum stands there a moment watching his retreating back before heading for his dorm.

 

**Week 3 Day 1**

 

Luke isn’t proud of his speed walk across campus. One of his students had stayed after class to ask questions about the homework. Normally he doesn’t care, encourages it even. Today, however, he’s taking Calum on a date. He’s late. 

The Bank building is in sight. Luke slows to a more acceptable pace for a working professional with a 401k and a garage. Luke had suggested getting dinner with Calum off hand, when they were texting this past weekend. Calum had picked the time and day. It only gave Luke 37 hours to over think what he should wear. 

Luke can see Calum now, leaning against the large marble staircase up to the building. He’s smiling and talking to someone. Luke almost stops, not wanting to interrupt Calum’s conversation with another student, but then Luke realizes who it is. He frowns. He should have known better. 

“Good afternoon Erika,” Luke sidles up next to Calum, hands in his jean pockets. Erika’s hair is piled on top of her head, a messy copper bun. Luke’s not a stickler for any type of dress code, but he almost makes a comment. He doesn’t like her. He’s accepted that about himself. He tolerates her for Ashton, but he doesn’t want her getting her claws into Calum. 

“Luke, good to see you,” Erika grins, “your life partner was telling me you had plans tonight.”

Luke wants to be anywhere but here. Instead he drops his face in his hands and grumbles, “We’re not life partners Erika.”

“Why not?” she questions him, but in the way she and Ashton question their students. In the way where they already know what you’ll say and have three retorts waiting to make you fight for your answer, “You both trusted your romantic life decisions to a piece of technology that says you will be.”

“Give us a few years to work up to that,” Luke turns to Calum, “You ready?”

Luke hadn’t really looked at Calum yet. In his pursuit to get Calum away from Erika, he didn’t notice Calum dressed up. Calum’s wearing a short-sleeve grey button-up, clean lines displaying his shoulders and black jeans lengthening his legs. Luke raises his eyebrows. 

“Yeah,” Calum nods. Even his hair is combed. Luke’s fingers spasm once, wanting to rough it up. Luke is overjoyed. Heat stirs in his cheeks, pride over seeing his One dressed up to impress him.

“Ooooook, let’s go,” Luke steps away, “Bye Erika.”

“See you soon Luke, have fun,” she waves. Luke thanks a God he doesn’t believe in when she walks toward the building with her office, the opposite direction from where they’re headed. Luke turns back to Calum and gestures toward his parking lot. 

“How was your day after my class?” Luke asks.

“You don’t like Erika much, do you?” Calum’s grinning. 

Luke could lie, but he chooses not to, “I’m sorry, I know you like her.”

“You’d know better than I would,” Calum shrugs, “I wish you had told me sooner. I could’ve dropped or something” Calum looks like he’s enjoying this, too much in Luke’s opinion. 

“She’s a great teacher,” Luke lowers his voice. They are on a public sidewalk, “We don’t get along well. Our personalities clash.”

“Really?” Calum furrows his brow but he still has a pleasant countenance, “She said you guys were close.”

Luke pauses on the sidewalk, closes his eyes, “Of course she did.”

“What’s the story then?” Calum walks backward in front of Luke and almost walks backward into a huddle of girls on the path in front of them.

“It’s a long one,” Luke pulls Calum back in line with him, afraid he’s going to trip over his feet. The pathways are crowded with people. A lot of them look their way, guessing what’s surely obvious. Luke feels the pressure of the stares and tugs Calum closer to him. He tucks his hand in his pocket again, afraid to accidentally link their fingers. 

“Not like we have an agenda,” Calum points out. 

“Ok,” Luke gears himself up for the story, “the first day I met Erika, she was co-teaching a class with my friend Ashton.”

“Professor Irwin?” 

“Yeah,” Luke tips his head, “Have you met him?”

“He was with you in the caf the other day,” Calum takes the turn to the staff lot.

“Oh, yeah,” Luke nods, “So, he introduced us. Right after meeting me, she made a joke about possibly being my soulmate.”

“What?” Calum’s eyes bug out, “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” If Calum finds that weird, Luke won’t tell him about the other people who have tried to use that as a pick-up line, “she didn’t stop with it until I got my time.”

“How long was that?” Calum follows Luke to his car. It’s a small black sedan, nothing flashy, but Calum seems excited about it. He must not have a car on campus.

“Only 6 months fortunately,” Luke says and slides into the car, “And then for about a year after I got my time, she made jokes about how sad it was that we weren’t actually Ones.” Luke fakes Erika’s voice for the last part and Calum snorts. 

“What else?” Calum asks. He’s relaxed in Luke’s space. Luke can tell by Calum’s posture and the past few weeks that Calum loves gossip about the various staff members. Calum had almost choked on a piece of chocolate last week when Luke had told him a story about his chemistry teacher farting in the middle of an interdepartmental meeting. 

Luke turns on the car, looks at the block pressing against the fabric on his left wrist, “She almost convinced me to remove it.”

Calum turns sharp at that, “What?”

Luke clears his throat and starts driving to the restaurant. It’s not far from campus and they’re too early for any rush. Luke doesn’t like to think about this memory often, but Calum deserves to know about it. 

“Has she ranted to you guys yet? About Timers?” Luke coughs past the feelings of inadequacy surging up in his throat. 

“I mean, we know she doesn’t believe in them. We’ve read a few things about them for her class, but she mostly asks us our feelings about them.”

“I forgot, you're in the class she’s studying, right?” 

“Yeah,” Calum nods, “Is that ok?”

“It’s fine Calum,” Luke pats Calum’s thigh once, quick, barely there. He turns right, “Know that she’s one of the top experts on the sociological significance and detriment of Timers, so she’s coming from that angle with your class.”

“But what happened with you?” Calum asks, eyes soft and open, listening.

Luke shakes his head, “It was a mistake. I was looking for Ashton- he,” Luke swallows, “he studied me years ago. He wrote an article on the effects of time-less Timers on adults and I was one of his subjects.” There’s a red light so Luke turns to Calum, “So, anyways, I was looking for him one day when-” Calum’s face is sad. Worse, it’s pitying, “I want to tell you this but I can’t if you look at me like that.”

Calum grimaces, “I don’t know how else to look at you.”

“Fine, I don’t have to tell you,” Luke takes the turn onto the main road away from the school.

“Luke, you have to tell me,” Calum insists, “It’s better you tell me now than later.”

Luke grips the wheel, two hands at ten and two. Green Day plays low on the radio, “Ok, I went to talk to Ashton about my Timer because it was a bad day and he always made me feel better about it. But Erika was in his office.”

“What did she tell you?”

Luke purses his lips, “I don’t really remember. All I know was that she had me convinced life would be better without it. I even drove to the local Timer place but they’d already closed for the day. If they had been open, I would’ve done it,” Calum’s hand goes to rest on his Timer, eyes wide and scared, “It was only a few weeks later that you got your Timer.”

Luke doesn’t speak for a few moments, let’s Calum process it all. He turns off the music as it switches between songs. He’s never going to be able to listen to 21 Guns again without thinking of this conversation. Probably best not to ruin another song. 

“Thank you,” Calum finally says, “for not getting it removed.”

“You’re welcome,” Luke nods. Calum’s time-less life flashes before his eyes. He sees Calum waiting patiently, watching the numbers, hoping. He sees Calum walking into Luke’s class, seeing everyone else’s first meets, not knowing his soulmate was selfish and had gotten his Timer removed. He sees Calum, older, giving up because he never got to meet his One. He sees his own life without Calum in it. A shiver runs up Luke’s back. 

Luke pulls into the restaurant, parks the car but doesn’t pull the key, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean for things to get so heavy.”

Calum’s lips purse again, the soft skin angry, “You don’t have to apologize for that. I know I’m just some kid you got stuck with but,” Calum reaches out with his left hand, grasps Luke’s right hand, “I’m here.”

Luke shakes his head, linking their fingers and covering Calum’s hand with both of his own, “I don’t feel that way. Calum, you’re,” Luke swallows, tries to gauge Calum’s reaction. Luke can’t read those big brown eyes, watching him carefully, “I’m not stuck with you.”

Calum nods, sits back in the passenger seat. Luke looks down at their fingers and feels a rush of nerves. He wants to kiss Calum’s knuckles. He restrains himself. 

“Think we would’ve figured it out without the Timers?” Calum asks.

“No,” Luke says immediately, shaking his head. It sours Calum’s expression, “I mean, I would never let myself get involved with a student.” Calum must find that funny, he cocks an eyebrow at Luke and smirks, “You know what I mean.”

“I guess,” Calum shrugs.

“That doesn’t mean,” Luke swallows, Calum’s attention on him now, “I wouldn’t have wanted to.” Calum’s gaze sharpens, fingers tighten, “I would’ve, uh, thought about it but. I don’t think I could’ve asked.”

“What if I asked?” Calum’s voice pitches low. Luke’s jaw clenches. His skin feels hot. Damn this warm weather.

“Uh, well,” Luke stumbles over his words, tongue heavy in his mouth, “I guess I’d be tempted.”

Calum leans forward, hand still between Luke’s. He’s only a few inches from Luke and the heat raises a few more ticks, “But would you have said yes?”

Luke wrenches back, “Wow, is that the time? We should probably get in there before it gets too busy.” He untangles their hands and jumps out of the car. Calum’s left staring after Luke, face fond and head shaking. Eventually, Calum pulls himself from the car. 

Luke waits for him on the sidewalk. He can’t meet Calum’s eyes when he holds out his hand. Calum grabs it, dragging Luke close, but moves his arm around Luke’s back, settling on the bone in Luke’s hip. 

“If you had asked,” Calum murmurs into Luke’s ear, “I would’ve said yes.”

A faint blush rises up Luke’s cheek along with a small smile. He follows Calum’s lead and brings his arm around Calum’s shoulder. It’s the first time outside of Luke’s office that he’s genuinely felt comfortable with Calum. 

 

 

**Week 3 Day 6**

 

The shrill ring of Luke’s phone cuts through his dreams. He groans, turning on his side to reach out on his night stand. Calum’s face is on the screen so he picks up and puts the phone to his ear. 

“Calum?”

“Why won’t you kiss me?” Calum slurs on the other end. Luke puts together the pieces of the question in his head. He rubs some of the sleep from his eyes, waiting for Calum to say something else. 

“Do you, like, not think I’m hot? Or is it still the age thing? You should kiss me. It’d be fun.” There are loud noises in the background and Luke is one hundred percent sure that Calum is at a party in one of the frat houses on the outskirts of campus. 

“Calum, are you ok? How drunk are you?”

“Pretty-yeah, I’m pretty drunk,” Calum hiccups and someone shouts behind him. Luke sits up in bed.

“Are you with someone? Can you get home?” Luke looks to the clock on the wall. It’s passed the time that buses run. If Calum wants to get back to his dorm, he’s going to need to walk a mile or two. 

“Uh-” Calum mumbles to someone near him before coming back to the phone, “I don’t-I haven’t seen Mikey in a while.”

“You want me to come get you?”

“Can we make out?” 

Luke puts his head in his hands, “Where are you, Calum?” Luke is standing up and pulling on a pair of jeans before Calum can answer. 

“Zeta house,” Calum pulls the phone away from his mouth and yells to the people he’s with, still loud in Luke’s ear, “Luke’s coming!” A shout goes out on the other end of the line. 

“Calum?”

“Yeah?” 

“Give me ten minutes, okay? I’m coming to get you,” Luke walks down his stairs and grabs his keys from the hook. 

“See you soon Lucas!” Calum hangs up on him. 

Luke looks down at the phone, one foot out the door. It’s 1:45 on a Saturday morning. It’s the weekend. It’s his two days of sanctioned time off and away from teenagers. Yet here he is, jumping at the chance to rescue his One. Maybe Calum will swoon and Luke will look like a hero. 

Luke lives close to campus. There are a few neighborhoods only a few miles from the imposing entrance to their school. The Zeta house happens to be in one of them, on a large plot of land in the back corner of the development. No one on staff can figure out why a neighborhood association would allow it yet the frat has lived there since before Luke started his masters. 

He pulls up at the end of a long line of cars. If he sees anyone with keys who has even looked at alcohol, he’s taking them. The weather’s still nice enough that a few scattered couples and a large group of brothers are sitting on the porch. Luke went to college, he knows what weed smells like. 

“Hey,” a Zeta, a student from last semester Luke’s pretty sure, calls out as Luke approaches, “You can’t be here.”

“Yet I am,” Luke proclaims, walking through the huddled group of men, “Did no one teach you the first rule of drugs?” Luke grabs the joint one of the kids is holding, “Hide it.” He drops it to the porch and rubs it out with his foot.

“What the fuck dude?” One of the other guys stands.

“Sit back down,” Luke uses the full weight of authority he’s gained with teaching hundreds of kids a semester, “And be thankful I’m not calling the cops.” The kid sits back down, dazed expression on his face. 

Luke was cool in college. He was gay when it was still considered edgy and he could scare half the football team away just by making jokes about them catching it. His favorite pick-up line, one he could only use after two shots of tequila, went something like,  _ want to practice in case you end up with someone like me?  _ Half the time he got clocked and the other half he got lucky. 

He spent a lot of times at parties like this. He walks through the dark hallways, bodies up against walls, skin up against skin. A few people give him second looks, but he passes on through. He used to be well known in these circles, floating through like he belonged. In college, it’s the timeless kids and the ones with years left that end up in back rooms. People who have their One are in their arms some place with a lot less grit. People with low times are sitting at home thinking about what it will be like. The people here, the people who are like him, they don’t have the luxury of looking around the corner.

Luke finds his way to a back parlour, clogged with smoke. Corners are tight with people but there’s a small group huddled around a table playing a drinking game. Calum sits on the edge of a sofa wearing a ripped t-shirt, jeans, and black nail polish. 

Rather than call out his name against the pounding bass from the next room, Luke approaches. He sets a hand on Calum’s shoulder when he’s close enough. Calum twists his head, a grin splitting across his face, “Hi.”

“Come on,” Luke nudges him up, “Let’s get you home.”

Calum’s grin falters but he doesn’t put up a fight. He holds up a hand to the people he was sitting with, passes his beer off to his neighbor. Luke grabs Calum’s wrist, pushing through the crowds to the front door with Calum following close behind. Calum hooks his fist into the back of Luke’s shirt, holding on as they weave.

They break out into the chill night air, a refreshing reminder that this is no longer Luke’s place. The proof of that is clinging to his back. The group of boys out front make way for them, looking away and hiding joints behind each other’s backs. They fall off the last step and Luke unclasps Calum’s hand from his shirt, bringing him around so they can talk.

“What were you thinking?” Luke says, no reprimand, mere curiosity.

“Mikey wanted to, so I went with him,” Calum stumbles over his words and the terrain. Luke loops and arm around his back to steady him, “Are you mad?”

“No,” Luke makes an effort to soften his voice, “No, I’m not mad. It’d be hypocritical of me to be mad.”

“Why?” Calum turns. He looks so innocent, the street lamps catching on his eyes. Luke’s age and experiences seep into his bones. He remembers being eighteen years old, stumbling around campus and wanting to be loved. He’d check his Timer every morning in hopes that his timeless days were all a dream. Knowing that Calum won’t have to go through that gives him a peace he didn’t realize he needed. 

“I used to go to these things,” Luke tells him, digging his keys from his back pocket as they reach Luke’s car. Luke opens the passenger door but Calum stands there, one hand on the doorframe, looking at Luke.

“You?” Calum’s eyebrows furrows and his mouth drops, “You were a partier?”

Luke laughs at the shock, “Calum, I was an out gay kid in the 90s with no time. I was the definition of partier.”

Calum frowns. He takes a second to process before sliding into the car. Luke walks around, starts the car and pulls away. Calum dozes off as soon as they pull away from the curb.

Luke takes a left toward home rather than the right toward campus. It’s not a conscious choice, but once it’s made, Luke stands by it. Calum’s his One, a part of him wants to protect him. Luke romanticizes rubbing Calum’s back as he pukes into a toilet. Luke bops to the light radio music as he turns into his driveway. 

Calum groans, “No.”

“Yes,” Luke pinches his shoulder, “Come on.”

Calum slowly opens his eyes. Calum’s not too bad off. Luke wouldn’t trust him with a car, but he probably would have been fine getting home alone. Luke feels a small curve of pride knowing Calum didn’t have to walk, that Luke was there. 

Calum opens his own door, meets Luke on his front walk. Luke still steadies Calum’s shoulders, and Calum leans heavily into his side. Calum watches Luke put the key into the doorway and Luke opens the door.

As soon as their through the door, Calum’s off. He stumbles away from Luke’s hands and starts moving from photo, to coat, to the couch in the living room, feeling the leather as he glances at Luke’s coffee table. Luke lets him explore. He leans against the doorway watching until Calum falls onto the couch. 

“Do you own the house?” Calum pipes up. 

“About half of it,” Luke answers. He looks at the frames on the wall Calum had stopped in front of. There’s three, one of him and Cindy at her daughter’s tenth birthday next to another of him and Cindy at his 21st. It’s a funny juxtaposition, their faces ruddy with laughter in both, but the one has more laugh lines. The other picture is from Ash and Amy’s wedding, Luke in between them, champagne in all their hands. Calum will have to meet them all eventually. 

“Someone else lives here?” 

“No, mortgage is only half paid,” Luke walks over, picks up Calum’s feet and sneaks beneath them. 

“Oh,” Calum’s coming out of whatever daze prompted him to call Luke, but there’s still a heaviness to his limbs, “Will we live here?”

It gives Luke pause. He had thought about it. The weekend after he’d met Calum, he’d gone through all the closets with a donation bag at his feet, pulling anything he might not need. He’s got twelve clean hangers and space for a lot more in his bedroom closet, waiting for Calum’s clothes. 

“We can talk about that later,” Luke rests a hand on Calum’s ankle, “I doubt you’d want to move in any time soon.”

“Why not?” Calum tips his head, “I could save a ton on housing.”

Luke sighs, “That’s not a very good reason to move in with me.”

“But it’s inevitable,” it comes out  _ inevable _ , “why put it off?”

Luke tips his head back against the cushion. He’s tired. He has a lot of grading and lesson planning tomorrow, plus he promised a few recommendations to kids. His eyes fall shut but he’s too aware of Calum’s feet in his lap to fall asleep. 

It’s supposed to be romantic. Or maybe to Luke it always seemed that way. He’d watched for so long, and not the cheesy rom coms where the couple falls slowly in love with each other, Timers just a confirmation of what they knew in their hearts. He didn’t expect that, but he had wanted the soft way Charlie looked at Cindy when their kids said something funny. He wanted the protective arm around his shoulder that Ashton swings around Amy. He’d been in a cafe when a couple first met, had sat down to coffee, hesitant and shy with each other. 

He’s grateful to have Calum in his life. He’s starting to feel comfortable with Calum. But it’s hard. Luke grew up when Timers were still relatively new. People didn’t know what would happen with them, if they would really work. Calum grew up when his story, his future with his One was already laid out and expected.  

“We can talk about it more when you’re sober,” Luke mumbles, dislodging himself from the couch, “come on, bed.”

Calum perks up at that, “Yeah?” There’s a heat in his eyes that tightens Luke’s insides. 

“I have a guest bed,” Luke counters, “That’s where you're sleeping.”

Calum holds Luke’s gaze for a moment. He decides on something with a quick nod, “No.”

“What?” 

“I want to sleep in your room,” it’s a combination of whining, begging, and determination that makes Luke laugh. 

“Well, you’re not going to,” Luke crosses his arms over his chest. 

“Please Luke?” Calum shifts forward, body boneless and tired. He reaches out to grab Luke’s waist, pulling Luke so he can rest his cheek against Luke’s stomach, “I’m your One.”

Luke sighs again. Calum sans inhibitions is a new beast and Luke doesn’t particularly want to fight this, “Fine, but nothing-” Luke hopes he doesn’t have to elaborate, “is happening.”

Calum holds Luke’s waist tighter. Luke indulges, runs a hand through Calum’s hair. Calum uses Luke’s body to stand, pulling himself up by Luke’s shoulders. His arms loop under Luke’s, hooked over his upper back. Calum settles with his face pressed into Luke’s neck. 

“Hi,” air hits Luke’s neck and he fights off a shiver. Tensions he’s held in his spine since he got his Time falls out. He holds Calum.

“Come on,” Luke whispers, “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Ok,” they untangle, dodging Luke’s coffee table as they walk to his staircase. Luke’s room takes up most of the second floor. There’s a small landing with a large arm chair and a reading lamp. His office is small, with a pullout couch and a filing cabinet. There’s a bathroom next to it and his room. The trim on the doors is white. It glows in the dim lighting. Luke left his lamp on.

“Wait a second,” Luke pulls the last of his body, his arm, away from Calum. He grabs a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from his dresser, holds them out to Calum, “Bathrooms around the corner.”

“Thanks,” Calum walks out of the room.

It’s now 2:30. Luke drops on his bed, pulls off his jeans. He hears the toilet flush and contemplates going to grab Calum a glass for water. He decides against it, pulling back the covers and sliding in. He’s never been aware of the fact that he likes the right side of the bed. He fluffs his extra pillow and sets it up on the left. Now it’s Calum’s pillow. It’s Calum’s side. He’ll have to get another night stand so Calum can have one too. 

Luke runs a nervous hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves. He hasn’t shared a bed with someone in years.

He’d had a few time-less friends who weren’t actively looking for their One. They’d occasionally spend some time in his bed, but not the night. Luke’s never been with anyone who mattered, never made the effort with anyone. He’s about to share a bed with his One, something so intimate. Luke's pulse is quick.

Calum comes back in. He throws his clothes on a chair in a corner and falls onto the left side of the bed. He struggles under the covers and turns to Luke, “Good night.”

“Night Calum,” Luke watches Calum. Calum jams his face into the pillow, burrowing in with the blankets around him. His eyes fall shut and his lashes lie against his cheeks. Luke smiles. 

“Hey Luke?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks,” Calum mutters and his breathing slows down. Luke follows shortly after. 

*******

Luke wakes up to an empty bed. That’s normal. That doesn’t startle Luke. The rumpled covers on the other side of the bed, that’s what startles Luke.

Luke sits up too quick in bed. The blood rushes for a second before he can figure out why the covers are rumpled. Calum.

Calum’s clothes are still on the the chair in the corner. It’s late, Luke didn’t set an alarm and now it’s noon on a Saturday. Half his day off is gone. He rouses himself, puts on some checkered cotton pants, and heads down stairs.

Calum is sitting at Luke’s kitchen counter. There are two mugs out and silver wrappers on the counter. Calum turns when he hears him, “I found your stash.” He holds up a S’mores pop tart and offers it to Luke. 

“Curses, you know my secret,” Luke sits down next to him. Calum looks good, not at all like he drunk dialed his One last night and demanded physical affection.  

“You can’t use the age thing against me anymore,” Calum takes a large bite out of another pop tart, “No one with that many boxes of pop tarts can be considered an adult.”

Luke laughs, “Do you want real breakfast? I can show off my cooking skills.”

“Sure.” 

Luke starts pulling out pans. He can make hash browns quick and he thinks there are a few eggs in the fridge.

“Thanks for coming to get me last night,” Calum pipes up, rubbing the back of his neck at the counter, “You didn’t have to do that.”

Luke smiles, “It’s ok. I want you to call me for things like that.”

“Oh,” Luke’s back is turned as he cracks eggs into a bowl so he can’t see Calum’s face, “About what I said-”

“Which part?” Luke questions, trying to keep it light. When Calum doesn’t immediately respond, he looks back over his shoulder. 

Calum winces, “all of it?”

Luke tries to suppress a smile but it quickly rolls into something else. Calum must realize that Luke’s not laughing at him but the situation and joins in for a few hearty chuckles. Luke throws the egg shells away and leans on the counter opposite Calum, “Want to talk about it now?”

Calum nods and mirrors Luke’s stance, leaning with one arm on the counter and his face resting on his palm, “What first?”

Luke thinks back on all the different danger zones Calum touched on, “I’m attracted to you.”

Calum’s eyebrows raise at that, “Ok. Thanks.”

“And I’m not weirded out about your age as much as it is weird that you’re my student.”

Calum ruffles his hair and purses his lips, “Ok, so how come we haven’t, like, done anything?”

Luke sighs. He runs a hand down his neck, pulling at the stubble. He might keep it a few days this time. It’s easier to find all the patches in his beard than to explain the inside of his head to Calum. 

“Well, I’ve never,” Luke begins and Calum sits up at that, eyebrows at his hairline, “No, not that, I’ve done that. But it never meant anything.” He shrugs, hoping that makes sense. 

“So have I,” Calum picks apart the last bit of his pop tart, “I’ve hooked up with a few people and it never meant anything. Other than like, practice for when we met our Ones.”

That answers a question Luke was not looking forward to asking. He can brood about Calum’s answer later, “That’s not what it was like for me. It wasn’t practice so much as-” Luke looks for the word. He grabs a piece of Calum’s pop tart as he thinks it over, “numbing? But I’ve never been sexually involved with someone in a romantic context.”

Calum nods, “Ok, but do you want to be involved with me?”

Luke hesitates, “Not right away? I swear that it has nothing to do with you, I just,” Luke blushes, “well, I haven’t been with someone since you got your Timer.”

Calum’s eyes widen, “Really?” Luke nods. “So it’s been-”

“Yeah,” Luke nods again.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Luke turns back around, starts beating the eggs, “I’d been waiting for you for so long. When you finally wanted me- it felt like cheating after that.”

Luke hears the creak of the chair against the wood floor and the tapping of feet moving around the counter. Calum slings an arm low around Luke’s hips and leans into him, chin hooked over Luke’s shoulder. Luke relaxes back into it.

“Does it feel like I cheated on you?” Calum says in the short space between his lips and Luke’s ear. 

Luke doesn’t answer until the eggs are in the pan. He huffs out a breath, “I guess not. I get it, that your generation looks at Timers differently than we did.”

“I would say I’m sorry but I don’t regret it so,” Calum wraps both arms around Luke’s stomach and shrugs against his back. It feels good. It’s a connection to Calum that Luke was missing. Luke sets one hand over where Calum’s are linked on his stomach. 

The morning lights up the kitchen around them. Calum hums in Luke’s ear as Luke turns eggs and checks the potatoes. When Luke moves, Calum stays still, waiting to engulf Luke when he comes back to the stove.

Luke plates what he made and turns in Calum’s arms, “here.” The plate he hands to Calum gets set back on the counter, Calum taking the other one as well. With all their hands free, Calum steps forward. He steadies himself with Luke’s ribcage, pushes up until there’s just a sliver of space between their faces. Luke is forced to pitch his gaze down. 

Luke takes the hint and crosses the gap between them. Moments after their lips touch, Luke grabs onto Calum’s hair, pulling him closer. Calum’s hand skate slow along Luke’s back, taking in the bumps and edges that define Luke. It’s deep and intimate, intense in a way a kiss has never been for Luke before.

Luke enjoys it until Calum pulls away. 

“So when can I move in?” Calum mutters with a bite to Luke’s jaw. Luke snorts and tips his head into Calum’s cheek.

“When you can pay half the mortgage.”

“What?” Calum pulls back, “But I’m a musician. I’m never going to make any money.”

Luke tucks his face into Calum’s neck. He enjoys the line of warmth against his forehead, “Than you’re never moving in.” Calum huffs and pushes Luke away. He grabs his plate and hops onto the counter. 

“Fine, I’m going to eat all your food then,” Calum digs into his breakfast and Luke’s laugh fills the kitchen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! I've got a lot of interest in this over the past 8 months so I'd love to hear what you think of this installment.   
> Thank you so much for reading and sticking around when I wasn't being a very good post-er!
> 
> Tumblr: emmybazy.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Look out for updates! If you care that is, if this doesn't interest you, then don't bother obviously. 
> 
> (Also, in the next chapter I establish that Calum is 18. So major age difference stuff here but not technically underage.)


End file.
